JD Sawyer is a Colorado based guitar player and composer primarily focusing on Jazz, Rock, Instrumental and ambient music. Over his career JD has played with a wide variety of artists in the R&B, Rock, Jam, and Pop genres. 
 JD earned his B.A. in music from Hobart College in 1992. During this time he led a NY based rock fusion group called Gooseberry Jam. Following college, JD was accepted into the Jazz performance program at the New School in Manhattan, NY. Upon moving to Colorado in 1996, he founded the popular Colorado jam band, Manatee Junction (later shortened to Manatee). Their first album, Dex, is a crafty mix of jam rock tunes laden with more sophisticated chord harmonies and changes. 

While Manatee was in full swing, JD was also the lead guitar player in the Ryan Tracy Band. RTB was a pop rock powerhouse featuring Ryan Tracy and Anitra Carr on vocals. Their mix of vocal stylings, harmonies and songwriting created a sound unlike any other band in Colorado. RTB was a mainstay at popular clubs in the late 90s and 2000s such as the Soiled Dove. Their second album, Rain Won’t Stop, was recorded by Danny Seraphine of Chicago.    

In 2003, after becoming fairly exhausted with the jam band scene, Manatee decided to pivot and focus on creating strictly instrumental and improvisational music. This period was a refreshing change, and the band reformed as a four piece called the Gary Players. The Gary Players played clubs all over Denver such as Citrus, Blue 67, and 5151 playing relaxed grooves without the need to put on a “show”. This pure freedom in playing was one of the most rewarding and prolific periods of music. Three albums were recorded during this time, Albatross I, Albatross II and Flow Forget. Flow Forget, the seminal record from this period, is a beautiful stream of musical consciousness that perfectly captured the flowing improvisation and listening that was happening. This music was never played again; thus the name Flow Forget. 

 Later musical projects included a reformation of Manatee with a new lead singer followed by the band, Schmocter. Schmocter represented a great balance of jam rock combined with pseudo pop songs such as FJ ‘72, Shubalai and Dirty Mess. Various live recordings of each of these groups and songs can be heard in the album section. 

 In 2007 longtime drummer Dan Luehring, formed an ambitious musical project called the Shadow Sessions. The Shadow Sessions embarked on recreating the groundbreaking album Endtroducing by DJ Shadow as a completely live show. This hip hop, jazz fusion masterpiece was created almost entirely with samples from Vinyl records, and is considered a landmark recording in instrumental hip hop. The Shadow Sessions group meticulously worked out every detail of these complex arrangements to bring the entire record to the live stage. Garnering critical acclaim in Colorado, The Shadows Sessions went on to California and played to a packed house at the Great American Musical Hall in 2008. 
 JD’s last musical project before a long hiatus was playing with the Love Royale, a soul R&B group performing originals and covers in the Denver metro area. The Love Royale was fronted by vocalist, Heather Larrabee and supported by Jon Wirtz (keys), Kyle Jones (bass) and David Petry (drums). The Love Royale was awarded best R&B band at the Westword Music Awards in 2011. 
 Playing in bands slowed down for JD following the birth of his twins while simultaneously starting a new business, The Aquaponic Source, which he and his wife Tawnya are still engaged in today. Starting in 2025, JD has a renewed focus to put more time and energy into writing, playing and developing the next phase of his music career so stay tuned for more to come!

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